President of Mexican university seeks negotiation with students

CNN April 28, 1999 President of Mexican university seeks negotiation with students

                  MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The president of Mexico's largest university said
                  Tuesday he is willing to negotiate with striking students, but warned that
                  some issues are not subject to discussion.

                  The state-run National Autonomous University, or UNAM, was shut down
                  April 20 by student groups opposed to a tuition hike they say will keep poor
                  and working-class students from attending college.

                  UNAM President Francisco Barnes de Castro said he was seeking a
                  negotiated settlement with representatives of the students' General Strike
                  Council, which says it will keep up its protests until the tuition hike is
                  revoked.

                  Last month's increase, the first at UNAM since 1948, raised annual fees for
                  new students from 2 cents to about $145 and ended the virtually free status
                  of the school, attended by more than a quarter of a million students.

                  Barnes has said the increase will apply only to students whose families are in
                  the upper half of Mexican wage-earners and has promised that their
                  declarations of income will not be checked.

                  Students also are demanding that officials revoke a 1997 reform that ended
                  the "automatic pass" policy that almost guaranteed students at UNAM's
                  prep-school system a place at the university.

"That has been discussed before," Barnes said. "It is not subject to any
further discussion."